Indonesia and Malaysia freeze trade talks with EU

Indonesia and Malaysia will delay trade talks with EU while they seek reasonable treatment for small palm oil producers. This is according to Financial Times on Wednesday.

Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof said that EU’s recently adopted deforestation law is a “punitive and unfair treatment towards us and to smallholders in particular”, the report added.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said the policy favors “large corporations and multinationals” which can afford the level of bureaucracy that the regulation will demand.

Indonesia and Malaysia sent officials to the EU earlier this month, to voice concern over the deforestation law.

Source: dawn.com

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